Random Renewables Thread

It's still a good bit cheaper than Energia after the price cuts

The smart EV tariffs are nice for the 3-4 hours at night but unless you've an enormous battery and charger to fill up during that window you'll be shafted outside outside that time

So, works for you, but not for me 😉

The question is whether Flogas will cut prices enough to make the fixed rate a bad move. Given the difference between the Community plan and the standard Flogas tariff, I think the fixed rate is still a good option

Flogas would need to cut prices by something like 30% to undercut the community plan, and given the cuts to date have been in the 15-20% range, I don't see if happening

Yeah true enough, but 20kWh seems to be at the edge of what's considered "normal" for a PV system

It makes sense to you and me, but not everyone is willing to sink €7-8k on batteries alone (if paying installer rates)

Anyway, I'm going to keep the D/N going as long as I can and then probably upgrade the battery and switch over to the smart tariff when the party ends

@the_amazing_raisin - "Yeah true enough, but 20kWh seems to be at the edge of what's considered "normal" for a PV system

It makes sense to you and me, but not everyone is willing to sink €7-8k on batteries alone"

A 14kWh battery DIY costs around €2,000 incl. cables and JK BMS with active balancing

If you bought one of the mason battery cases would she give even know it was a DIY battery?

Almost DIY prices was a gross exaggeration, but yeah you might recoup some money on the premade ones you have and go that route - zero DIY and you live another day with your bowels intact 😁

Insane return on (a low risk) investment. I expect a zero electricity bill for the year once I switch over tomorrow after my smart meter is fitted. That includes driving 2 cars, one doing above average mileage.

As the zen master said, we'll see

Given Energia have recently raised their FIT, it's debatable whether it'll go down significantly in the next couple of years

Domestic solar uptake is still extremely low, Irish people are more inclined to trust their loudmouth friends in the pub rather than 5 mins of economic analysis

So even a high FIT is unlikely to be costing providers much. And given where energy prices are, paying the FIT is probably cheaper at times than the wholesale market. So domestic solar could represent a saving for some suppliers

Anyway, it doesn't have to last forever, 3-4 years is probably enough to make a significant contribution to people's payback period

Unless we get an outside player coming in I don't see agile tariffs coming anytime soon

Most of the innovation in the Irish energy sector seems to be about getting more money out of customers (looking at you YouNo)

Closest we seem to have are Water Power who so to be just averaging market rates across the month with some profit margin added on

Hardly counts as agile though, more like a slightly more variable rate

Interesting question, and lots of factors to consider on this.

I went into the European Photovoltaic calculator and entered -90 for the Eastern azimuth and then +90 for the Western and the month of June (at 35 degrees slope and a 1kW Wp array) and got these irradiation graphs:

Eastern:

Western:

For the clear-sky day as you can see the overlap around 12:00 is not the maximum point for both, it's offset by a couple of hours (as expected). But it would be interesting to combine these into a graph to see what the maximum is... so I did:

So the maximum clear-sky irradiance appears to exist from 11:00 to roughly 12:15.

Yes I'm afraid it's mostly wishful thinking from my part at this stage

There is money in it for everyone though, that should be a good motivator for providers.

If you are not a regular drinker in a few select Kanturk pubs and you dont know the secret handshake you cant get into waterpower

Community power are the same.

I wonder how a company like that feels the overload. Do they get absolutely fleeced for the power they dont generate themselves?

It's something I wonder about myself but I guess it's how they buy electricity from the market

As far as I can tell, an energy supplier has to buy the same amount of energy they sell to customers but there isn't necessarily a requirement that it's done at the same time of customer demand

This seems to be how a company like Energia can claim to be 100% green energy, they just aggregate customer demand and pay some wind producers to put the same amount of energy onto the grid when they can

Of course it only works if there's a bigger supplier around who will actually pay for the energy during peak periods

If our aforementioned small suppliers suddenly get big enough that they have to pay peak market rates then they won't be able to compete anymore

I also suspect they're doing absolutely no hedging and they're just taking the market rates as is. It works when the spot prices are lower but as soon as they go up then you're screwed

"Free stuff, get your free stuff!"

I got 3 or maybe 4 of the €30 ‘all for one’ vouchers from the ESB for the 'is this a good time?' pilot that just finished. And they are extending it to a new one it says now. It’s simply to renew, click on the link below. I assume people can sign-up for the 1st time too, and you’d need to register for it. They have asked more targeted Qs this time from what I recall of the initial pilot. Like if you feel you’re an energy ninja or noob. Copy of email below.

Edit: They say "That’s €5 for each energy event!" - up to this you got a voucher after several of them. So this could be better.

I was interested in the pilot. For me personally it's important to support energy conservation and for the best use of the grid. Plus I got paid, sweetttt!

Email bumpf:

Sign up today and start to earn ESB rewards

Hi,

Our ‘Is This a Good Time?’ pilot is coming to an end.

Over 18,000 people across the country actively took part in the pilot with more than 40,000 positive actions taken to help support Ireland’s security of electricity supply and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

Thank you so much for taking part, we really appreciate all your support so far and have taken on board all your feedback. 

We are now delighted to invite you to sign up to our new phase. If you’d like to now take part in this new phase of ‘Is This a Good Time?’ simply register for an ESB Networks Online Account today (if you do not already have one) at https://myaccount.esbnetworks.ie/ and remember to add your MPRN (How to Find Your MPRN | ESB Networks) if possible. Or, for more information on the programme, please click here.

Once you have created your ESB Networks Online Account, simply log in and click on the icon ‘Time for rewards’ on the main page and follow the instructions to sign up to the new phase of the programme. Sign up now

Why sign up?

Continue to get tips and information by email and SMS letting you know how best to use and take control of your home’s electricity, and how we can all take advantage of available renewable energy. Get rewarded for taking action

Once you sign up, you will start to receive energy event communications (peak events and flexibility events*), and if you have linked your MPRN (found on your electricity bill) to your ESB Networks Online Account, you can also now receive rewards for taking action when asked.

*What are peak events?

A peak event is when there are lots of people using electricity at the same time and there is not enough renewable energy generation to supply electricity demand. This means that during peak events electricity is more expensive, more carbon intensive, and it may be less secure

*What are flexibility events?

A flexibility event occurs in two scenarios in which we may ask you to be flexible with how and when you use your electricity: 

1. When there is surplus renewable electricity generation, we may encourage you to take advantage of the available renewable energy as it is less expensive and less carbon intensive at this time.

2. When there is less renewable energy generation available, this is a good time to take control of your electricity usage by avoiding electricity-heavy appliances such as your tumble dryer, dishwasher and iron.

Thanks again for your continued support and we hope you join us in this new phase today. 

Sign up

Yours,

ESB Networks

Fingers crossed for an email - got 3 the last time.....must use them :)

on another ESB Networks topic I received a letter today as part of my provider switch, my MIC is listed as 8kVA which seems low from my understanding

What MICs have others got in urban areas (if that even matters)?